Migrating A DC or File Server To New Hardware

Migrating A DC or File Server To New Hardware
Last Updated: 12 Feb 2003
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*** PLEASE NOTE: Link(s), If Provided, May Be Wrapped ***


If you're lucky, you will occasionally get new, improved
hardware for your file servers or domain controller, and
find yourself faced with the prospect of migrating Files
and Shares, along with other services, over to the new
equipment -- with permissions intact.

Although some have successfully using cloning software
migrate a server to new hardware, this is not something
that I advise. Especially not for mission critical boxes.

My recommendation is to build a new box, and then migrate
things like shares and files over.  It takes a bit more
time this way, but you will experience a whole lot less
grief, and get a chance to eliminate any junk which was
accumulated along the way.


Here's an outline of what needs to be scripted for a
successful migration:

• Duplicate the shares from Old system to New using FOR and RMTSHARE
• Update the share permissions using PERMCOPY
• Copy the files, with permissions intact, using ROBOCOPY (v1.95 or higher)


Here are some instructions for copying shares for the
old machine to the new one:

• http://www.sans.org/infosecFAQ/win/NTFS.htm
• http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBA/TIP0000/rh0075.htm
• http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=19877
• http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsnt20002003faq/Article/ArticleID/13753/windowsnt20002003faq_13753.html  15161
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=266083
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=125996
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=141589
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=265704


MIGRATING DHCP

• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=130642
• http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/new/dhcpexim-o.asp


MIGRATING DNS

• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=280061
• http://www.jsifaq.com/SUBG/TIP3300/rh3357.htm


MIGRATING WINS

• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=193820
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=283290
• http://is-it-true.org/nt/atips/atips181.shtml


MIGRATING PRINT QUEUES

• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=214795
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=255187
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=266058


REPLACING YOUR DOMAIN CONTROLLER

• http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=19877
• http://www.babinszki.com/winnt/pdc-bdc/


TRANSFERING FSMO ROLES

Although Active Directory domain controllers are peers,
there are 5 roles which can only exist on one DC at any
given time.  They are called Flexible Single Master
Operations (FSMO) roles, and here is how you can transfer
them from one controller to another:

• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=255690
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=324801
• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=255504


MIGRATING EXCHANGE SERVERS

• http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq_appxa.htm


RESTORING BACKUP TO NEW HARDWARE

If you feel you must restore your old config to new
hardware, here are some instructions for doing so:

• http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=249694


SCRIPTING SAMPLES

Here's a script to copy all the shares (and permissions)
from one server to another:

*** Requires NT4 or higher PLUS Server ResKit ***
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 SET @OLD=\\oldserver
 SET @NEW=\\newserver
 FOR /F "SKIP=4 TOKENS=1-2" %%V IN ('RMTSHARE %@OLD%') DO (
   RMTSHARE %@NEW%\%%V=%%W
   PERMCOPY %@OLD% %%V %@NEW% %%V
 )
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(NOTE: It won't handle share names containing a space.)


PERSONAL NOTES

• I really disagree with using cloning software for
  this purpose.  Unless, of course, you just enjoy
  troubleshooting weird problems, ever so often.

• The basics of this migration method will work for
  many scenarios besides File Servers or DCs.